Chapter 186: Calm and Reasonable People
Now, it would be nice to say that upon seeing the glimmering hoard of wealth, that the group behaved like calm and reasonable people. That they moved into the chamber under the earth and methodocally split apart the gold, counting it out slowly so that everyone got their fair share of the loot and that they knew about everything that they were taking away with them.
Such a thing would have been lovely to tell you, because it would have showed what wonderful and mature people this party of friends - and Revenant - were in the face of unimaginable wealth.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to say such a thing. As the moment they laid eyes on the pile of gold, teamwork completely went out of their minds as their eyes glimmered with pure greed.
All at once, they charged forwards. Some of them collapsing at the edge of the gold pile while others leapt into the peaks of it, as they immediately started to drag the gold into their bags.
The only one not included in their unspoken agreement was Revenant, the odd one out in their group. He looked at them in disgusted disbelief, shaking his head slightly at the shameless behavour of these people.
He approached more calmly, ignoring the gold and sifting through it, as he searched through the wealth.
Belladonna, caught in the same greed as the rest, managed to pause her gold shovelling to glance over her shoulder at Revenant. She narrowed her eyes, watching him in all of his suspicion as he dug through the gold.
He was moving and searching with purpose. Not digging down mindlessly, hoping to find a ’diamond in the rough’. He was searching specifically for that diamond, as if he knew for a fact that it was here, just not specifically where.
Just like he knew where this hidden lair is, just not specifically. Also the undead that he wanted, or the Dragon’s weak spot, or half a dozen other things that he just knew too much about.
Just where did he get all of his information? It was all too specific, yet too inaccurate in places, to be from certain sources. If it was future visions, how vague did they have to be to get the information half right? Did he forget some of it?
She was so focused on the strange, seemingly contradictory knowledge of this insufferable man, that she did not notice that what she was shovelling into her bag at the moment was not gold.
"Ahh, God dammit!" She shouted as her sizzled as if she had just grabbed a red hot iron. Belladonna immediately dropped the dagger she picked up, as it bounced and clattered down the pile of gold before coming to a halt after skidding across the ground.
She clutched at her hand, her skin charred black and peeling away from the serious burns. But most importantly, it was not healing from her vitality stat. Even after a few seconds of waiting and staring, she saw nothing happening.
The noise broke everyone from their greed induced stupor, even if they did so with arm fulls of gold. Saige immediately rushed over to her, grabbing her hand and inspecting it closely before placing his hand over hers.
A soft white light glowed from between their hands, as the burn slowly retreated and healed. Much slower than either of them had expected, causing Saige to frown deeper and increase the output of his healing spell to get close to his usual rate.
Vestra walked over to the dagger curiously, crouching down to inspect it. It seemed to be made out of pure silver, or what looked like silver, even down to part of its leather wrapped handle. It was perfectly polished so much that the flat of its blade was a perfect mirror, yet when Vestra leaned over it and looked at it from above, her reflection was missing from the blade as it simply showed the ceiling above her head.
Frowning softly, she reached down to shift it, to test the properties of this non-reflecting reflection.
"Don’t." Revenant sternly scolded, as he grabbed Vestra’s wrist and stopped her from touching the dagger. She scowled at him, but still pulled her hand away and stood up.
"One of you two pick it up, and put it away somewhere safe."
He directed his order towards Lilith and Figg, who exchanged concerned looks, before Lilith stepped forwards. She crouched down to pick up the dagger, and hesitated for a moment. She tapped it, testing to see how hot it was, before frowning deeply and simply picking it up.
"It’s cold... Was something underneath it making it hot?"
"No." Revenant answered, staring at the dagger with concern and gesturing for her to put it away. When Lilith finally obeyed, sheathing the dagger on her belt, he continued with his explanation.
"It’s Hollonite. Supposedly a holy metal, although it is mainly used by demons in their weaponry. It is highly effective against certain races, burning them on contact. Zombies, Ghosts, Skeletons.
Any Undead really. Or any Fell-spawn."
"I suppose that is just another one of your hunches, right? Just another little fact that you happen to know. Did you find what you were looking for, by the way?" Belladonna said with a half-hearted, passive aggressive smile as she stepped away from Saige and slid down the pile of gold.
"Maybe it is, and Maybe I did. It is none of your business. I don’t ask your secrets, You don’t need to know mine." Revenant replied with a deep scowl.
"Ha!" Belladonna barked in laughter, before jabbing him in the chest. "You don’t ask about my secrets?! That’s what you are going to claim? You’ve been in my business for a week. You’ve been obsessed with me ever since the Beta test. You know my real name and you stalked me to my house!"
"He did what?!" Saige shouted, but Belladonna ignored him and grabbed Revenant by the front of his armour, shoving him back into the wall.
"I am getting sick of all your secrets. Your little hunches. Yeah, they are useful. You can be useful, when you aren’t being insufferable. But I am tired of it all."
"I don’t need to tell you anything. Now release me."
"Oh no, you do. I finally figured out the price of this heart. You want it, you have to spill your guts or I spill them for you. Just so we are clear, this time when you answer... Tell. The. Truth." She growled and leaned close, until their faces were inches from each other.
She stared deep into his eyes, and he glared into hers as the deep red of Belladonna’s iris’ started to glow with scarlet energy.
[Beguiling Eyes Activated!]